Fun Times

I apologize for the 30+ photos in the last post about New Years. Hopefully you don’t mind :)

Now that I’ve covered the holiday season, I want to settle into a regular post cadence to sum up the highlights and workouts from the previous week. Then, when I get bored on Friday nights I can go back into my iPhoto library and find random things to flashback recap (like Katie’s wedding, and Oktoberfest, last year’s races, etc).

Headed back to work + kicked things off with our global all-hands.

A few hours later a food truck rolled up to our door, courtesy of one of our investors, congratulating us on a strong Q4. It’s the little things :)

Wednesday night we hosted a block party for the neighboring offices. It was random, but pretty fun.

On Thursday a few of us went to lunch at this memorable pastrami spot, Refuge, in San Carlos. I need to go out to lunch more because 1) this was really tasty and 2) it was good to get out of the office midweek.

Friday night Kyle made this fine looking dinner for us. My one job was to put spinach in the quinoa and I totally forgot. Whoops. We had cookie dough ice cream for dessert. MMMmmm

And then, it was Saturday.

I went to bar method, and then went for a short run, and then showered, and then curled my hair… I felt a little bit Texas afterwards so what else are you going to do but Snapchat it?

For Christmas this year, Kyle told me to keep Saturday afternoon free for a surprise. Around 1 pm we drove towards SF and then got off the freeway near the San Mateo county airport. Turns out that we were going flying in a small plane… Wanna know the twist? Once up in the air, the pilot lets YOU fly.

We signed some forms and walked out to the little plane. I’ve always had a thing for Amelia Earhart so this experience was ESPECIALLY COOL. We got inside the plane and the pilot when through a lengthy “cross-check.” Now I see why it takes so long in the big planes.

And then we took off! We basically flew right over my office (one of those white buildings below)….

We flew south towards Palo Alto, and then west towards Half Moon Bay. The pilot told me to take over shortly after take off, and I maneuvered us towards the ocean, turned us around, and back towards the airport.

The whole thing was amazing… maybe one day I’ll be able to get a pilot’s license :) Like, if I win the lottery.

That night we went out to dinner in Palo Alto (the other downtown) at Anatolian Kitchen. We shared hummus, moussaka, and a gyro dish. Everything was really good, but I especially loved the moussaka.

After dinner we watched Snowpiercer on Netflix. Talk about a weird movie.

On Sunday I did what I always do, went to bar method in the morning and then Starbucks to catch up on work. I made it back in time to catch some football but I’ll be honest with you…. football is way more interesting when fantasy points are on the line.

Workouts

Look! Proof! I can still sorta run…

But only when there’s some sort of stimulation….. PLL is BAAAAACK :)

Who can name all 4 shows? Bottom right and top left are my favorites. Bottom left I’m *trying* to get into. Top right I just, don’t even know why I was sucked in.

I’m following [a sometimes modified version of] Hal Higdon’s plan (AGAIN) because it’s not too time consuming, allows for bar method classes to layer on top easily, and it forces me to do speed work, tempo runs, and pace runs. I need to start those again!!!! I mapped out my running goals for the year (including training and races) which I’ll talk about in my next post!

Ok, since starting to blog again I’ve used four posts to cover Thanksgiving to Christmas… and you KNOW what’s next (plus, I mentioned it in the title)… New Year’s! After an eventful year-end at work (including a fun happy hour on 12/30), I woke up for 6 AM bar on New Year’s Eve. Gotta tuck, tuck, tuck before partying all night, right? After class we packed up the car and drove to Sacramento, where we picked up Kerry and Matt. Two hours later, we arrived here…

This lovely cabin in South Lake Tahoe was perfect for our group. We divvied up the bed assignments and decided to head into town for drinks/food. There were good reviews on Yelp for The Brewery, so we gave it a shot.

Unfortunately the 30 min wait quote turned into an hour, and then when we finally sat down (they separated our group of 9 into two tables in different rooms), our waiter took about an hour to take our order/deliver drinks. He didn’t even say if food was on its way and 1/2 of our group hadn’t eaten anything all day! Yikes. All in all, we won’t be back and we wouldn’t recommend for groups.

We went back to the cabin and played a few drinking games….

Surprise of the night goes to Nicole. After working all day on the 31st, she was going to spend the night at home and wake up early to drive to Tahoe. Instead, she drove up to Tahoe with her boyfriend THAT night and made it before the countdown. It was awesome!! Nicole is assimilating into my college friend group which is basically the greatest thing ever.

One of those selfies that rivals Ellen’s. Lucky for us, Ari has really long arms!

Also lucky for Kerry who, on the morning of New Year’s Day, found the hidden coin in her slice of Ari’s homemade vasilopita (greek tradition: cake made for new years with a hidden coin baked inside; finder has good luck for the year). Lucky ducky!

I’m not sure why this photo below is relevant, but we look pretty cute. :) We spent a lot of cabin time on the couch, in our PJs….

But we tried to get outside to enjoy the snow too! On New Years we went sledding outside our cabin….

Darren & Kitra (newlyweds!)

Victor & Maria (newlyweds!)

Kerry & Krish (NOT newlyweds! haha)

Clay, Darren, Andrew

After sledding we did something…. maybe watch football? (there was a LOT of football). Then we enjoyed a delicious HOMEMADE lasagna dinner, courtesy of Kitra and Darren. HOLY MOLY it was so goooooood. After dinner we played the most epic game of Baseball ever. First, we split the cabin into two teams: Nor Cal vs. So Cal. Up until the 7th inning stretch Team Nor Cal had a hefty lead. Then, Kerry’s lucky coin rubbed off on the So Cal team and they came back with an epic 9th inning, including a walk-off home run.

It. Was. Awesome. After that we hailed two cabs and went to Harrah’s so the guys could gamble.

Tyler left the craps table with a good chunk of change and the other guys….. didn’t do too bad. I think. We also had fun on the slots, especially when Ian won about $80 on the penny machine. You better bet we hooted and hollered as if he won $8,000.

The next morning we had an early wake up call for a group photo. (Nicole took it, thank you!) But really, we had to get going so that half the group could hit the slopes at Heavenly.

Since we brought our gear, Kyle and I were able to get a few runs in before the rest of the group arrived on the mountain. We also had time for a suuuuper sunny/squinty selfie. That lake tho.

Then we found the group! There was pretty much one (fun) skiable run that was open. So we did that over and over and over. It was also nice stopping at lunchtime to soak up the sun :)

Kyle K.

Clay

Victor (lol)

Tyler

Matt

Around 4 pm Kyle and I went back to the cabin and jumped into the hot tub where Kerry, Krish, Ian, Nicole, and Chase had been happily stewin for most of the day. Then Ari came out and took the funniest picture of the whole trip. HAHAHAH love this.

That night we ordered takeout from Hunan Garden which was really smart because we were 1) getting sick of pizza rolls and tortilla chips and 2) Clay loves Chinese food (mostly Panda Express though) and 3) we needed a good base before playing round after round of Asshole and King’s Cup. Things got interesting when we set a rule for breaking the ring-of-cards… ;)

The next morning (Sunday) a few of us drove to the lake… you know, LAKE TAHOE. The coolest thing was happening 30 feet away from the “beach” — the rim of the lake was freezing! You could walk out on to the frozen ice layer and see it cracking at the edges. Chunks of ice would float in and out. It was really entertaining!

…..And good for photos :)

That night we all went out for sushi at Samurai (there were only 8 of us left) and then finished the night with Jenga. Who doesn’t love Jenga?! So suspenseful.

And that’s how Nicole and I spent New Years with 16 of our favorite people. Looking forward to everything in 2015!

Yes, I know it’s January. But let’s back up and relive the December fun :)

My first holiday “party” was the cookie decorating happy hour at work. After Dreamforce we moved into a new office that’s in the middle of nowhere (Redwood Shores) and to keep things jolly about the office we created “Team Fun” to organize bi-monthly, themed happy hours. I loved the cookie decorating one and was pretty proud of my snowman sugar cookie.

Next up, Kim’s infamous holiday party in Fresno! I’m fairly confident that everyone who is invited to Kim’s party looks forward to it all year. She’s just a spectacular hostess and continues to surprise us with her festive/glamorous decorations, drinks, and food! (Here’s a recap of 2012 and 2013)

It was extra nice to see Holly and Molly (after Oktoberfest!) and Megan and Paul (and their adorable pup!) and Wes (from the dorms) and Margaret and meet Kim’s boyfriend for the first time. How many days until the next Martinis and Mistletoe party?! :)

–SIDEBAR real quick for a photo of Nicole (and her bf!) at her company holiday party–

Ow ow! So hot.

Next “holiday” party? San Francisco’s ridiculously awesome SantaCon. I forget what weekend it was, but with approx 20 minutes of brainstorming Kyle and I both found Santa-worthy outfits and headed up to the city via Caltrain with Jeremy, Pam, Kit, Adrienne, Sallie, Chris, and some others. I took two fuzzy white socks from CVS, cut them up on the train, and safety pinned them to the bottom of my red dress. I wish I would have snapped a photo! Everyone was so festive, and yet this is all I have to document the day….. #fail

Met up with some coworkers in the middle of SantaCon! Speaking of coworkers….

The day after SantaCon, we pulled ourselves together for our company holiday party at our CEO’s house. Like last year, there was Christmas caroling a la piano, silly games, and gainsta merryment. This time we upped the ante with a photo wall and fake cigs.

A few days before that, I joined Kyle at his company’s holiday party in Menlo Park. It was a very classy event…. with a jammin’ jazz quartet and fancy buffet dinner. It was awesome meeting Kyle’s coworkers and catching up with my pal Joffer who just started working there!

Next up: Our Christmas & NYE festivities…. in SF and Tahoe!

Would you rather: decorate xmas cookies or dress up like Santa and roam around SF?

One month ago, Krizia and I drove down to LA to spend time with some of our favorite people. We left Friday after work and made it to Pasadena in time for late night food/drinks with Clay and Andrew. We started at Congregation Ale House (Yelp) – nice beer selection and sweet potato fries… then we went to Pasadena’s eclectic 3-floor billiards/restaurant/karaoke spot, Barney’s Beanery (Yelp).

Nicole, do you think our official blog song can be Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar On Me?! Just think about it… :)

Krizia and I woke up early, excited for a full day with our other two college roommates, Fran and Kerry. With two boxes of Bob’s Donuts (as in San Francisco’s Bob Donuts) in tow, we arrived at Fran’s house for a phenomenal potluck breakfast of sorts…

Kerry brought bacon breakfast burritos (ooh alliteration!) and Fran made a huge pot of coffee… We chowed down and made plans for the rest of the day – stand up paddleboarding in Newport Beach!

Our two-hour paddleboard rentals gave us just enough time to cruise through Newport Bay and the Balboa Coves neighborhood. It was so fun!!!! Only one of us fell in, any guesses?

After returning our boards, we walked over to the ocean-side of Newport and laid out on the beach until our skin felt just a little tooooo hot. Only one of us got a sunburn, any guesses? Hint: it was also the girl who fell in :)

Fran had the best idea for our next stop – Costa Mesa’s “Camp” green gathering spot. While Krish and Kerry ordered food from Native Foods (Yelp) (why don’t these exist in the Bay Area!?!?), Fran and I walked over to Milk + Honey (Yelp), a super cool coffee/tea shop with shaved ice specialty drinks. A blended chai sounded amazing on the hot day, t’was love at first sip!

Plus, their little garden courtyard (above) was awesome. Super SoCal. We also grabbed cookies from the Blackmarket Bakery (Yelp) and sat outside to share. Dang, those were good too.

When we got back to Fran’s house, we were greeted by Wes! He spent the rest of the night hanging out with the four of us and it was great to catch up with him.

For dinner, we picked up supplies from a local grocery store and Fran magically made us miso soup and humongous rice/seaweed/salmon sashimi bowls. Want to watch her creation come together in 15 seconds? Watch this on Instie.

We ended the night chatting over a bottle of wine and a few donuts. Couldn’t have asked for a better day with these amazing ladies. Can’t wait til next time! #mo8forever